Glossary of Terms Used in the VaYetze Weekly Torah Portion

Jacob’s Ladder

“Jacob’s Ladder” is the middle line by which one should walk; it is the golden path. This is the line in which one connects all of one’s elements, the good and the bad.

In fact, nothing is bad. If we know how to use the bad correctly, we turn it into good and helpful. This is why Jacob’s Ladder is our desires, which are initially the evil inclination, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination.” However, if we connect these desires to “I have created for it the Torah as a spice,” this combination creates the middle line.

On the one hand, we constantly correct worse and worse desires, since “one who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him”(Masechet Sukkah, 52a ). The more we advance, the more we discover how evil we are. A greater force comes to us, the force of the light that we discover, which we must expose and with which we correct ourselves. When the two connect in the degrees, we grow “richer,” both from the desire and from the light that corrects the desire.

Thus, the sum total of one’s soul grows (in the connection between them), and in it, the Creator increasingly appears. This is how we attain the middle line, until we actually reach Beit El.

Love

“Love” means that instead of my own desire to enjoy, I take others’ desires and satisfy them. Love means using all my capabilities to satisfy others. Love is self-annulment; I have no desires of my own, nor anything that I want to do for myself. I am only for others.

When we connect with each other in this manner of love, we acquire all the souls, all the other desires, which then become our own. When we satisfy them, we obtain infinity (Ein Sof).

Seven Years

“Seven years” means seven degrees: there are six degrees of Zeir Anpin, called “the Holy One, blessed be He,” and the seventh is Malchut. Together they are seven degrees that must achieve unity. Seven is always a complete number. There is also the number ten, which is Gadlut (adulthood), but usually, the structure consists of seven.

Reward

In our world, “reward” means that I satisfy myself. In spirituality, “reward” means that I have an opportunity to satisfy others.

From The Zohar: His Thought Was of Rachel

“If He set His heart upon man, He will gather his spirit and his breath unto Himself.” The will and the thought draw the extension and do the deed with everything that is needed. This is why in prayer, a desire and a thought to aim in are required. Similarly, in all the works of the Creator, the thought and the contemplation does the deed and draw extensions to all that is needed.”

Zohar for All, VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out), item 189

We cannot avoid thoughts, falls, disappointments, and mistakes altogether. It is introspection, similar to what we do at the beginning of each year. We need to always do it, and it is good that now we are going through such a process throughout the world. Humanity is finally beginning to understand how wrong its ways have been. It is possible that from this state we will all rise to Beit El.